Sunday, November 29, 2009

Back to getting the creative juices flowing! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend and didn't empty their wallets on Black Friday. Gotta get in the Christmas mode and start making my Holiday cards. See ya at my craft desk!!

Friday, November 20, 2009

My Mushroom Village. Fairies flyin' Everywhere.
10 members each created their own house pages. The swap host will bind all 10 different pages together as an accordion folded book and return them back to us...I am excited to see what everyone created.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Awwww, C'mon...it may be late, but I think it was worth the wait!!! This bag was a blank canvas slate...I cut the handles and painted the bag inside and out. Using fabric glue I adhered the loops for the handles and then took the bag to the local shoemaker and had them stitch it up for extra sturdiness...okay...I may be artsycrafty but I can't sew a stitch!!! Enjoy the pics. It was made for my boss for her trip to India in February, 2010. Hopefully it is big enough to hold all the souvenirs she intends on buying.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Okay, am I the only one who loves her birthday??? Many of my friends try to forget theirs, but I have always loved my birthday...because it is my day! I guess I could thank my mom, because she always made my birthday extra special. Yeah, yeah...I do have other friends that also celebrate the 15th of November...but it's fine with me...because I don't mind sharing my day!!!

I am wishing for a Carvel Icecream cake...which is my all time favorite for my birthday. So hopefully Al will surprise me with a Carvel cake...I just adore those chocolate crunchies...Yum!!!

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

This is my mini book on Music. I chose Salsa because my boyfriend and I are always listening to his Salsa Music CD collection. Willy Chirino, Marc Anthony, Celia Cruz are just a few among the many different Salsa artists that we listen to. Celia Cruz was the Queen of Salsa and then there is Ray Barreto who was labeled the Godfather of Salsa Jazz...For some more history into the world of Salsa read here: the true beginnings of the use of the term SALSA as we know it today. Ray Barreto and Johnny Ray were two Puerto Rican musicians and Ray Ruiz a self proclaimed "promoter" from upper manhattan who had developed ties to the Cuban musicians who often made that place their home even before the Cuban exile post- Castro. Upper Manhattan, with all its night clubs and upper end restaurants was a petri dish for Latin musicians, specially Cubans who were on the cusp of the music scene here in the US, where the "Cuban sound" could be twisted and turned and mixed and mangled without or with less criticism than it would receive in Cuba from the "puristas" of the music of the time.

Ray Barreto, Johnny Ray and Ray Ruiz wanted to take the rich Afro-Cuban sounds and make them more their own, and they did so by incorporating, of all things, nuances from the Classical Music genre and the works of such greats as Bach, Beethoven and others. They wanted to create their own "sound" which would be indigenous to the people of El Barrio, who were primarily of Puerto Rican ancestry. Like all immigrants, they wanted something to call their own. They were, in their own way, geniuses; they created a street sound that became known as "the Bugalu" and it took off like wildfire.

While on a promotional tour of their new "sound" to Venezuela, Ray Ruiz and Johnny Ray had the opportunity to sit in with a very well known and industry powerful DJ of his time, in Venezuela, Venezuelan radio DJ Phidias Danilo Escalona; This man had a very popular radio show that reached millions of people, something akin to an "American Bandstand" only on the radio. During their interview, they plugged their new sound, this Bugalu (also spelled BOOGALU) which they identified as "the ketchup of music" relating to the tasty sauce which was popular in America. But the DJ could not wrap his head around the idea of this "ketchup"....what was it like? What did it do? During that exchange Escalona said "Oh...its like a sauce..a Salsa" , and from that moment on, the word Salsa became synonymous with all types of Latin Music. Ray Ruiz, Johnny Ray Tito Puente and others later created the greatest Latin Music Enterprise in the history of Latin Music, The Fania All Stars... the rest, is History.

Monday, November 9, 2009

This is the cover to my mini book on Georgia. Not only do we share a birthday...she is one of my favorite artists. She passed away at age 98. Whew! I sure hope I get to live that long...healthy of course. This book was painted using acrylic paints in only BRIGHT colors as was Georgia's artwork...Bright and Vibrant Colors!

About Me

I consider myself a veteran stamper and always look forward to learning new techniques and styles.
Over the years, I have worked for several stamp stores in Florida and in Las Vegas, not only in the capacity of a rubberstamping teacher and demonstrator but also in the manufacturing of rubberstamps. I have also demonstrated different stamping techniques at stamp conventions in Las Vegas, Arizona and California. My classes and workshops encompass all different avenues of rubberstamping. I have also had my work published in several different stamping and crafting magazines.
I am a Stampin'Up! demonstrator and enjoy teaching, sharing and creating great projects and works of Heart.